It’s time for a strategy for male victims of domestic violence
Split The Difference have launched a campaign to secure the development of strategies to tackle intimate violence experienced by boys and men throughout the UK and Ireland.
The campaign begins with a focus on the Northern Ireland Executive’s recent call for views on the development of a specific strategy to tackle violence against women and girls. We are calling on the Executive to complement this work with a male victims strategy.
There is a significant empathy gap regarding male victims of violence generally, and intimate violence in particular. Boys and men are frequently marginalised and hidden in narratives about such crimes. One extremely stark example of this is the fact that the crimes of the most prolific rapist in UK history, all committed against men, are recorded by the Crown Prosecution Service as ‘violence against women and girls’.
Psychologists Liz Bates and Emily Douglas recently completed a review of intimate violence public policy practices and concluded that strategies such as the Home Office’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy (VAWG) which position intimate violence under ‘gendered’ frameworks significantly exacerbate issues for those who sit outside the male perpetrator/female victim narrative.
Evidence of barriers that male victims face in accessing help and support can be clearly evidenced both in the academic literature, and in lesser presentation of males to services, in part due to the relative lack of resources and service provision made available to them.
Male victims face stigma, stereotypes, suspicion and sex discrimination, sometimes even by the very service providers you might ordinarily expect should be offering them support and understanding.
In 2020 The Men and Boys Coalition published a position paper highlighting how ‘gendered violence’ strategies cause the marginalisation and invisibilisation of male victims, and happily the direction of travel is very much moving towards male specific strategies.
Last year the Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, Vera Baird, stated that “The Home Office needs to offer a separate strategy for developing the rights and support services for men and boys who are victims of interpersonal violence of a physical or sexual nature”.
Meanwhile in Scotland, the governing party, the SNP, included a commitment in their election manifesto to: “Fund resources for services which support men who are victims of rape and domestic abuse, and establish a national strategy on ending intimate and sexual violence against men and boys.
Northern Ireland is the only one of the four UK nations which does not currently have a specific gendered strategy for addressing Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). Last year, they committed to develop one in the immediate aftermath of the murder of Sarah Everard.
We are calling on them to also commit to a male victims strategy and have highlighted a number of ways that their supposedly ‘gender neutral’ approach can often be gender neutral in name only to the significant detriment of male victims.
For all of the reasons outlined above, we believe that the development of specific strategies to support boys and men is long overdue.
The time is right for change. Find out how you can support our campaign.
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Disclaimer: This article is for information purposes only and is not a substitute for therapy, legal advice, or other professional opinion. Never disregard such advice because of this article or anything else you have read from the Centre for Male Psychology. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of, or are endorsed by, The Centre for Male Psychology, and we cannot be held responsible for these views. Read our full disclaimer here.
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Sally-Anne Burris - CEO of Split The Difference